A congressional pick for new head of the Department of Homeland Security has a track record of supporting mass surveillance initiatives similar to the NSA PRISM program.

Next Gov.com is reporting that ranking House Homeland Security Committee Democrat Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Tenn, has recommended Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif. in a letter to the president.

According to minority committee aides, Thompson wants Sanchez to replace the current DHS head, Janet Napolitano, who announced recently that she is to step down in September after five years at the federal agency, in favor of a senior position at the University of California.

Sanchez is a DHS committee member who supported the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, (CISPA), a “cybersecurity” bill which would allow the intelligence community to monitor the metadata of private emails, in order to supposedly weed out malicious software and threat signatures.

The NSA PRISM program works in a similar way, scouring metadata on communications of millions of everyday Americans. The Department of Justice has argued that the process is legal under the PATRIOT Act.